Site-specific multimedia installation (2017-2018) for Fabbrica Alta, Schio (Vicenza)
The goal
As part of an urban regeneration project, to give life to a new vision for Fabbrica Alta, the former Rossi textile factory: one of the main symbols of the first industrialization in Italy and a masterpiece of industrial archaeology, abandoned in the 80s.
The idea
From an abandoned industrial complex, which stands silently in the center of Schio, to a “living” organism that interacts again with the city, its environment, and its inhabitants.
With the intention of working on the visibility of the building, as well as on the reworking of a shared memory to generate a new connection with the local community, the facade of the factory has been transformed into a gigantic LED wall with 50 windows, displaying colors, phrases, and graphic elements.
Using materials found in the abandoned rooms of the building, a “sound machine” was built with hammers striking pieces of frame and mechanical arms rubbing sheets of metal. At the same time, a dual archive was created: one of repertoire sounds from the ancient textile machines, and another of new sounds created during laboratory activities carried out within the structure itself.
Fabbrica Alta has thus transformed into an immense visual and sound instrument, made available to artists and musicians from around the world. Invited through a call to create unique and site-specific compositions using the images from the LED wall and digital sounds, they were able to manage the entire “organism” through dedicated software, collaborating remotely in the creative transformation of a place that is particularly significant from an architectural, social, and environmental perspective.
